Rand Paul to plunge into North Carolina Senate race

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is making an 11th hour plunge into the North Carolina Senate race, aiming to boost his preferred candidate and block the GOP establishment’s favorite, state House Speaker Thom Tillis, from scoring a clean win in Tuesday’s primary.

The Kentucky Republican and potential presidential candidate said in an interview that he will stump on Monday for Republican Greg Brannon, a libertarian-minded candidate who is trying to ride a tea party wave into a runoff against Tillis, who is backed by the party establishment and is reportedly expected to receive the endorsement of Jeb Bush. Tillis is looking to avoid a runoff in North Carolina and quickly unite the party in the critical Senate race against Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan.

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Tillis needs to eclipse 40 percent in the primary to win outright, and several recent polls have him on the cusp, making Paul’s move potentially a consequential one. If Tillis falls short, he would face a two-month runoff, draining his resources ahead of the general election.

Paul endorsed Brannon in October, but Brannon has hit a rough patch with legal problems in recent months and the senator hadn’t put his muscle behind the fellow physician since. Until now.

“I have decided today I’m going Monday to campaign for Greg Brannon in North Carolina,” Paul said in the Capitol Wednesday. “I think it’s pretty close there actually, and there’s a chance we can help him enough to push him over the top.”

“BIG NEWS!” Brannon later tweeted to promote the Charlotte rally with Paul.

The move by Paul is the latest effort by 2016 presidential hopefuls to exert themselves in 2014 primary races at a time when intra-party wars could jeopardize a prime GOP opportunity to retake the Senate. Most of the presumed 2016 candidates are either staying out of primary fights or taking a far more measured approach, calculating the risks of putting their name behind a candidate who could catch fire — or implode.

But stumping alongside midterm candidates also gives them an opportunity to build ties with Senate hopefuls, their fervent supporters and big-dollar donors.

It’s a risk some are weighing as they look at whether to engage in some of the country’s most important primaries, in states from Alaska to Georgia — or wait instead until the general election when the party is united against Democratic candidates.

“For somebody who is running for president, being involved in a primary is a double-edged sword for them so they have to be very careful on what they do,” said conservative Georgia Rep. Paul Broun, who despite promising he’d be a senator in the mold of Ted Cruz, has yet to receive an endorsement from the Texas freshman in his Senate primary campaign. “I certainly understand that.”

Each of the potential presidential candidates is taking a different approach to the midterms. In other instances Paul is clearly seeking to build bridges with the party establishment by publicly supporting several of his GOP colleagues, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. Marco Rubio has stayed away from GOP primaries. And Ted Cruz has avoided endorsing fellow GOP senators but instead offered his backing to two insurgent candidates in the Oklahoma and Nebraska primaries — for seats almost certain to stay in Republican control.

In an interview, Cruz signaled he may make more primary endorsements, saying he is “looking at races across the country” and has met with a “sizable number of candidates” and would continue to do so.

But, the Texan said, his additional endorsements would be limited to “strong constitutional conservatives in the Senate who are willing to stand up and lead the fight.” So far, he backed T.W. Shannon in Oklahoma and Ben Sasse in Nebraska.

“When it’s difficult to do so, when there is a price to be paid, when people are throwing rocks at you, in each of the last two cycles – we have seen the core of constitutional conservatives grow, and it has had a beneficial impact on the Republican Conference in the U.S. Senate,” Cruz said in the Capitol.

It’s not just senators who are running for president who have gotten involved in the midterms. Rick Perry announced his support for Matt Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney running in the contested GOP primary for the open Iowa Senate seat. Perry also backed McConnell’s reelection bid in Kentucky.

In addition to backing several House candidates, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee endorsed Reps. Steve Daines in Montana and James Lankford for Oklahoma in their respective primaries. And just as Cruz did, Rep. Paul Ryan endorsed Sasse, who is battling against former Nebraska state Treasurer Shane Osborne and several other candidates in the May 13 primary.

Other candidates — like Rubio — are steering clear of intraparty fights this year. The Florida Republican dumped big bucks behind Rep. Tom Cotton’s bid in Arkansas, but the conservative congressman does not have a primary foe. And he’s raised money for the likes of the right-wing Club for Growth and the establishment group American Crossroads — two groups periodically in sharp conflict in GOP primaries.

“Right now, we’re just focused on retaking the Senate - I think that’s our priority right now,” Rubio said in an interview.

And that’s reason enough for some to sit out of a contested primary like North Carolina — except for Paul and presumably Bush, who will back Tillis, according to the National Review. The next two closest candidates after Tillis are Mark Harris, a Charlotte pastor, and Brannon, an obstetrician from Cary.

Asked if he we were worried that if Brannon won the primary but lost the general election, he’d be responsible for the outcome, Paul said with a laugh: “No. I think we’re going to do everything we can to get him to win, though.”